“Being for every man the touchstone of faith and love, the Eucharist, like the cross, divided minds as soon as it was announced… When the renegades had withdrawn, Jesus was left alone with the twelve apostles. Then he asked them this question, and it seems that our ears can still hear his supplicating tone: “Do you also wish to go away?” Thus, until the end of time, the Creator will plead with his creatures…
[There is a] mysterious mingling of conflicting feelings in the man who is about to receive Holy Communion: fear and confidence, open-heartedness and remorse, shame and love. The small Host which the sinner approaches throws an impartial and terrible light on irretrievable deeds: on that which he has done, on that which he should not have refrained from doing. No man knows himself if he has not looked at his soul in the light of the Host lifted above the ciborium…
All the misdeeds that the communicant sees at a glance are no longer his; someone else has taken them over since the pardon of Christ has come down on his soul with the absolution of the priest. His misery, far from driving him into despair, helps him understand how much he has been loved…
If we love [God], it is a sign that he loves us, for it is a gift of God to love God, and he never rewards us for anything that he has not himself given us. Thus, an almost foolish confidence overcomes all our doubts, our anxieties, and overflows the memories of the defilement of our soul…
What is almost always obtained through frequent Communion is a grace which surpasses all perceptible favors; an increased light and, better still, a new strength in God.”
from The Bread of Life, by Francois Mauriac
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